'Witch Hunt' As Martha Stewart Employees Search for Source of Leak

Getty ImagesMartha Stewart with her sister, Laura Plimpton.
On Tuesday, media outlets reported that Martha Stewart's younger sister, Laura Plimpton, had died at age 59 of a brain aneurysm. The news came from a leaked email to Stewart's staff, in which she wrote, "My youngest sister, and the youngest of the six Kostyra siblings, Laura Kostyra Plimpton, passed away today in Norwalk Hospital. Laura worked for me and the company for more than 25 years."

Now, though, administrators at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia are on a mission to track down which employee leaked the email to the press, New York Daily News reports. And from the sound of it, they're not fooling around.

"The whole office is going insane and on a witch hunt scanning all employees emails to figure out who leaked info on her sister's death because one of the papers reported info from an email that was sent," a source told Confidenti@l, the Daily News's gossip blog.

An additional email was sent out to "all MSLO employees" reminding them of the company's stringent policies against leaking emails. Ironically, this too was leaked to the Daily News:

"This is a reminder that no employee is authorized to speak to or communicate with the press on behalf of the Company except members of the Communications team. This is clearly detailed in the Employee Handbook, which can be found on the employee intranet, as well as the Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement you signed upon being hired at MSLO. Violations of any provisions of the handbook or the Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement are subject to discipline, up to and including termination."